The Devil’s Sleep (1949) CRIME DRAMA

Posted on by womo



Stars: Lita Grey, John Mitchum, William Thomason
Director: W. Merle Connell
Writers: Danny Arnold, Richard S. McMahan

The head of an illegal drug ring uses a women’s health spa as a front for his sleeping pill racket.

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49 Replies to “The Devil’s Sleep (1949) CRIME DRAMA”

  6. Ok, so it's not so slick and the acting is stilted – lacki g emotion, but I can watch this movie because it' kinda quaint. I'm reminded of the plays put on by a community theatre and thats not such a bad thing after all.

  8. I may be a bad movie but I thought the subject matter was interesting for the time period – Plus…"Tessie Talulah Tessie – Ain't two Tessie's enough?" – That's a pretty hysterical line!

  9. It was delightful to spot the intense research and contextual theatrical alignment for the hand-selected character parts in this old example of celluloid.
    WAIT … who am I kidding? The acting was so wooden, my eyes got splinters watching the first 420 painfully excruciating seconds. Only then, when the sergeant asked for a tip-off name, and was given – with a serious look from the juvenile – “Fred Smith”, that’s when I decided I’d like to pull my spleen out through my nose instead of trying to get through 1 hour / 11mins without screaming.
    Please tell me this was just a screen test that got swapped with the real flick, then released by accident. How many audience members died during the screening of this?

  11. Every film that has Mr America in it is amazing..
    Amazingly crap lol..
    I think the script writers must have been on drugs, as for the actors.. They needed drugs!

  18. makes me think of those old fashioned enema bags that used to hang on the back of your grandmas bedroom door with the broken clip.

  19. Horrible Acting by horrible act-tors" they should have stayed working in the greasy diners they were found in. Reminds me of the current dribble ppl pay for in 2016.

  22. This was the first and last movie for many of the "actors."  Lita Grey Chaplin was the ex-wife of Charlie Chaplin and mother of his sons, Charles, Jr., and Sidney.  She had bit parts in earlier movies, but this was her first and last starring role.  Timothy Farrell, who played the bad guy running the health club, also appeared in Ed Wood movies.  And that doctor at the end of the movie is Robert  Mtchum's younger brother John, who often appeared in bit parts in his brother's movies.  Toward the end of his career he had a good role as Clint Eastwood's partner in one of the Dirty Harry movies.

  26. What a hoot! I always wondered why my dad always referred to certain people as "hopped up"! I knew he was referring to either drugs or coffee, but back in those days, the Drs prescribed "speed" to lots of women for weight loss. I was told my Grandfather had huge bottles of them & anyone in the family could help themselves! In my generation, drugs were constantly sold illegally. Now the kids get "hopped up" on Addreall or Ritalin prescription! Kinda sounds like it's hereditary!

  27. Even in those days hollywood chose actors pumped on steroids to show off and hide the fatness of the country,just like now a days, insted of normal people

  30. "Everybody's gotta start somewhere" department: Danny Arnold, who co-wrote this film, and served as "assistant director", later became a prominent writer/producer/director in Hollywood, particularly in television {"BEWITCHED", "THAT GIRL", "MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT", "BARNEY MILLER", et. al.}.

  33. boy history repeats itself bigtime.. the opiate epidemic the doctors should have known its fiery … shame on the drs for letting money influence the pill epidemic again….

  37. I suppose one of the reasons our kids today are so desperate is because movies or even television shows stopped becoming a place for information for the whole family! I really think my generation was the last to get ABC's "After School Specials" [& Such] that taught us about consequences that came from ""DOING THINGS THAT WERE ILLEGAL, DANGEROUS, STUPID OR IMMORAL,"" & we got a good dose of ""LESSONS FROM OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, PARENTAL DIVORCES, MONEY TROUBLES & FAMILY."" We watched the actors portray things we were struggling with on a personal level helping us to deal with "LIFE."
    Our households were falling apart, I believe partially due to lack of Parental guidance in the home after school. Families depended more & more on a "Two Income Household." No More Chaperones &/or A Soft Place To Land While Struggling W/ Our Existence As Kids In The 1970-80's.
    The Mainstream Channels Stopped Sending Us Good Wholesome Value Shows & Began Feeding Us [or should I say – 'drowning' us] With Content More Adult In Nature, & Gave Us An Intimate Look Into The Feelings & Characters Of "Bad Guys" or "Sleaze Balls" – I think this was/is a sneaky way to undermine what we're taught by our parents.
    Criminals Scientists call this the "Pain Matrix." This means we are becoming more in-tuned with their pain; biologically inclined to want and need to understand them on a personal level; deepening our interest & therefore, we'll stay to watch what happens next, whether or not we like the guy or agree with his morals…
    I think that's very true or movies would lack depth or oomph! lol But, I'm Not Convinced This Is Good For Our Already Depressed & Under Nurtured Children – Especially Today!~ Peace!

  44. Even John Mitchum couldn't pull this one off;his doctor impression was wooden like he was totally bored and reading it off a board.
    For a moment at about 10:15 in I thought we had Kurt Russell's dad but no just a doppelganger.

  47. Bad as it is, it's more entertaining than 95% of the crap Hollyweird serves up today. It's watchable; today's stuff makes you barf once you know the plot

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